1. |
Two Feet Shy
03:50
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That’s all—you were always on the fall
Two feet shy of someone tall
Ooh lord! What an eyeful when you’d call
on her birdbath hands, if you’d land at all
Birdbath hands, if they’re hands at all
You’ve more room than I
to move your feet to
so why not move into
the room that you keep
on tiptoeing into
whenever I sleep?
Is it somewhere you’ve been to,
or somewhere I’ll send you
when I’ve spent too long
try’na map out the corners
where you hadn’t gone?
You and me
and the room
make three
of a pair with too
many legs to share
and too many ifs
I can’t sit on politely
No-no, I’m gonna find me
a four-legged chair
I’m gonna find me
a four-legged chair
That’s all—you were always on the fall
Two feet shy of someone tall
Ooh lord! What an eyeful when you’d call
on his birdbath hands, if you’d land at all
Birdbath hands, if they’re hands at all
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2. |
Hi-Livin'
03:08
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Hi-livin’ is where you find yourself
when all the cards you’ve dealt
have found their way into your hand
and left a rented lot
just where you thought
your own would stand
After all, you picked a tiny life
Fits small (to spite your height)
But love is best caught dumb
and poorly dressed
Three trains come,
take you to the West
Don’tcha tell me why she lives so far
(You know those one-train girls
never made you who you are)
Don’tcha tell me why she lives so far
You lent me hours
‘til I sent for all your days
I didn’t spend them—
tucked them all away and left
the clock to clack its gears
Tick/tock: I’ve packed
for ten whole years
What shows?
What shows?
What sho-ho-oh-oh-ohs
but a too-fat bag
that doesn’t close
and it’s something that I just won’t drag
behind me when I go
Hi-livin’ is where you find yourself
when all the cards you’ve dealt
have found their way into your hand
and left a rented lot
just where you thought
your own would stand
Li-livin’ is where you find yourself
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3. |
What The News Is
04:01
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God damn these shoes
that walk me
anywhere they choose
they’ve brought me inches
on a map—
and what are inches
supposed to do?
cheer a lonely crawl, or
let me know I’m getting taller,
getting closer to the moon?
You want taking care of in the day
but when I’m walking, well
I haven’t all that much to say
you were something special on the way
but now you’ll have to live
without the ears that
waded in a growing mouth
‘til nothing came
and talked them out of asking
what the news is
Ambition is a pricy little girl
who’ll never need you to be hers
You see, she has enough of those
kneady little doughnut holes
(They’re only known for what they leave
and not what they are)
And so, she’ll take your bracelets
Crowns to frame her face with
Leave you nearly toothless
Tell me if you see her
and tell me—if you see her—
won’t you ask her what the news is?
I’ll have a listen
if you can tell me
what part to rip out
what heart to rip out
and what piece to start missing
what leg to let die
just to keep on with your living
a half-legged life
And half-pretty’s all rot
but it’s enough to get by
if you don’t stop to count your toes—
God knows, you won’t need those
to close a door
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4. |
Hello, Shadow
03:57
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Little girl, I think you're peeling
off a coat you're meant to keep
It wraps you tight
so why the chatter-teeth,
the tugging at the sleeve?
No pick-pick-picking does you good
It grows as it should
Still talking tender as it bends
the very marrow underneath
It's safety-pinned along her hem
in case she points her toes against
some other gravel road that grows
and travels through the skin
and speaks a mocking click-n-clack
that doesn't know an end
until it meets her on the walking-back
to counsel as a friend
"Hello, Shadow—good to see
a sight familiar on the road
We share a common pair of feet,
not a common travel home”
Said the Shadow: "Better leave
the Sun to learn another face
He won't need you when he's done
You won't have to set a place
And though I know a twice-seen rock
can talk you into such a state,
you'll live to see your pockets burn
with each and every name you learn
Here's hoping by the time you make it
‘back’ is not the same.”
You're on your own this time around
and you can see your own way down
just like you saw yourself
to every table top and shelf
that seemed so high from far below
when up was still a place to go
and not a thing to leave you
when the soil met your toes
and turned them brown
Brown, muck-brown
No, you don't get to pick a cloud
Don't tell me you want a hard life
Was boredom such a long, long fight
to wade through and sleep with
and draw your breath to sigh?
To swear at as you turned to find
your toes on a road she trailed behind?
And home is hardly what you mind
You keep to a road she trails behind
So don't tell me home is what you mind
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5. |
Hooks & Eyes
05:18
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Came to see, but the sun won’t come to me
I won’t be the one who waits to speak
‘til the light brings something to say
at once or in piece-lings to parcel away
the fall of a slow-crawling, bellied sun
that drags on the ground in its legless way
Did you fall for a lamp below your feet?
Pretty things is all,
and pretty things won’t call
in the dark, won’t wait
while you sleep
I’d set them apart
before hooks and eyes
are all that you seek
And I know what cuts you in two
(Two parts, too much
for all the good that they do)
You’d be surprised what a needle
and string can do to mend
these types, these types of things
Oh, what a needle
and string can do to mend
these types, these types of things
You: you walk a straight and narrow line
that I can never seem to find
or pick apart from either side
I: I think in circles, and it shows
I know everywhere they go
They only change their lines
enough to keep the play the same
A shrugging course
A shrub of sorts
that grew from what
I wouldn’t tame
I only want the strangest things
but hoist the bells, and I will sing
A ribbon strung your heart along
It’s longer when the bow is gone
I know how to make a scene:
I’ll tell them each a different thing
and hope it all comes out
the moment that I clear the crowd
And tell me what you hope to bring to pass
by keeping me around
And tell me what you hope to bring to pass
by never being proud
You only want the simplest things
but hoist the bells, and I will sing
A ribbon strung your heart along
It’s longer when the bow is gone
You ask me if I’ll see it through
I wish I knew, I wish I knew
The finer points have learned
to scrape themselves in turn
until they make
a square, unseemly way to crawl
a dull and hollowed-out escape
They only find it fit to call
when calling's all that I can take
You know the sound—some easy words
could twist & turn you out
You know I, you know I
will always track them down
You know the sound
You know the sound
You know the sound
and you know I, you know I
will always track it down
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6. |
Different Shores
04:28
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I've been followed, so it seems
but backwards-looking isn't worth
the look of things
so nearly steady on your shoulder,
shaking out an awful pair of wings
with a skyward reach
They'll never fly too far
while they're attached to me
Too long I've sat a wretch
A rope that doesn't stretch
its length for all the knots
I sink into its threads
And now you pick apart
how I passed my time
so often in the dark
that it took my lines—
When I simply found a piece you lost, you lost
I let it swim across, across and draw me
Different shores
than when you saw me
an age before
Different shores
than when you saw me
an age before
I worried 'bout the wedge
breaking one life into two
'til each had had enough
and neither twin would seek its pair
or greet the other in a crowd
Long-forgotten kin
Estranged, their faces changed
Eyes protected by the brow
that guards against the dirt
A picket fence, a crown
that fits a little wide
and sits a little low
(as if you took to growing down
when you forgot which way to go)
I see you less, or rather
less is what I see
Where's the rest?
Where's the rest?
Is it something that I’ve kept
since I was seventeen
and hardly careful with my things
or careful where I stepped?
But I think I found a piece you lost, you lost
I let it swim across, across and draw me
Different shores
than when you saw me
an age before
Different shores
than when you saw me
an age before
And if time aligned us
side by side
he wouldn't know what's yours
from what is mine
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7. |
The Dog
02:13
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He’s what keeps me from picking up the phone
Always in the corner of my eye
—haven’t found him anywhere tonight
Checked the bed and then the kitchen
There was nothing there worth missing
Coffee table on its side
Sticks of gum that stuck to dry
a Big Red No—a walk outside
'case he’d gone ahead and thought
I’d only be
a step behind
But not this time—time to climb
into the cab and take a drive
that rang familiar though I couldn’t
tell you why
Guess I needed me another pair of eyes
So I woke them when I made it to your door
“I lost my dog“—you let me in
although I know
I’ve told you that before
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8. |
Another Thought
04:23
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Well, two cheers for the glowing
candles in your eyes
You know I had
to dig for mine
And so I sank
ten curls in the earthy
thick of night
You know I had
to dig for mine
Don't give me a trifle
an eyeful of tears
as something to go on
when I'm going on years’
worth of candles to blow on
without you here
And you want me to half-care
while you're half-here and you're half-there
to give you leave and a push
from the top of the stairs
Where life is but a slide
down the bannister where
you will find your own ride
Where life is but a slide
down the bannister where
you will find your own weight to bear
And I would go along, but see
another thought has taken me
Another thought is taking me
out on the town
wondering what it'd make of me,
sending you down
with some blessing or kiss
or whatever it is
that you want from my lips
when father of bride
is no title of mine
You can bother the guy
who has that kind of time
And you want me to half-care
while you're half-here and you're half-there
to give you leave and a push
from the top of the stairs
Where life is but a slide
down the bannister where
you will find your own ride
Where life is but a slide
down the bannister where
you will find your own weight to bear
And I would go along
I would go along, but see now
One of us is a youngish cut
the other picks
then fixes up
I'm seesaw sick
but I won't get off
Seesaw sick
but I won't get off
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9. |
Walk Right
04:30
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There’s no sense in both of us going
I’ll send a line and open it knowing
a verse is time that mercy left hurting
but fate forgot to finish the job
There must be some kernel of hope that the searching
will soften and offer apology working
her corners, her corners, her corners
and calling them round
For sure I’d have heard, if I knew my own sound
But it’s something that don’t come right up quite often
One fist up—pa-pa-pah—politely to cough in
and signal enough is enough is enough
to save face
But a fool won’t stay put in a circle of chalk
so save it for someone who knows not to walk
And why chew slow on account of me?
It is not as tough as it oughta be
What wind blows on a count of three?
No hope, no hope for the curious mind
Some note, some note of the furious kind
will slip the ear (when least awake)
when words are few (and words are few)
and you could hear a needle take
its time where the dull
won’t make it through
And why say hello to someone
that you already keep at your feet?
It is not as tough as it oughta be
I’m gonna walk right
where I came from
While you talk night
‘til the day comes
to an empty bed
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10. |
Maybe We'll Row
03:30
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Tell me how many times
they've called and you've stared
into the nothing pot
Where nothing ever seems to rot
with talk of what had fallen there
But unhappy marbles, let's be fair:
Your ups are garbled, and no such pie
could call its humble home the sky
and insist we met in passing
when my fingers were too wide
but they don't spread so far, and so,
you know you must have grown there
from below
Where are we in the hour glass?
Where are we in the sand?
Busy churning while the hours pass
I'm learning of the jam
in its vicious waist
in the cinch it makes
in the middle
We had time until we didn't
Now it's something that
we're much too big
to chase—
But maybe we'll go
one by one a ways
Maybe we'll row
single file awhile
And maybe I'll know you,
one of those days,
on a southern shore
of a sandy plain
Maybe we'll go one by one aways
Maybe we'll row single file awhile
And maybe I'll know you,
one of those days,
on a southern shore of a sandy plain
below the glass, while someone laughs
and cries:
“Unhappy marbles, let's be fair:
Your ups are garbled, and no such pie
could call its humble home the sky”
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